My maiden voyage into the world of yoga hadn't even officially begun, and it was clear who the rookie in class was.
I made it as far as sitting on the floor – which, for the record, is not an official yoga pose – before Karen Kenney, owner of Quest Yoga Studio on Beacon Street, noticed I was struggling to sit up straight in a comfortable manner.
She offered me a beanbag pillow to sit on, which immediately did wonders for my posture, if nothing for my nervous ego. After all, if I couldn't even sit on the floor correctly, how was I going to twist myself into a pretzel for an hour?
But, as is often the case, my preconceptions were way off base.
Kenney's approach to yoga is centered in understanding your body and its limitations. There would be no pretzel-twisting, at least not for me. There were those in class who seemed to be comprised at least in part of Silly Putty, but for people like me, who struggled even to sit up straight, I was encouraged to push things only as far as I felt comfortable.
Honestly, I'm not sure exactly what I expected to find. My wife, a dedicated aficionado, had been imploring me for years to join her for a class or two, and I'd seen the effect the study had on her. She's much more relaxed, more centered, calmer.
And yet somehow I still imagined it was primarily about stretching the limits of your flexibility. And my limits in that department are very limiting.
But it was clear from the beginning that Kenney's style of Quest Flow yoga is quite the contrary. She encouraged her students to stop if a pose hurt rather than pushing through the pain. Listening to your body quickly became a theme of the morning.
Thankfully so, at least for me. There were poses I could perform more easily than I would have guessed, but there were certainly others that challenged me. I discovered a tightness in my right calf I never knew existed, and would learn hours later just how much of a stretch my hamstrings truly received.
But there was no sense of pressure in the class. Kenney successfully creates an atmosphere in which everyone feels comfortable. Though I was clearly the only first-timer in a room of about 10 students, I never felt as though I was being left behind. And the stuff I couldn't do, I didn't do.
Perhaps the most surprising aspect of the morning was the effect the relaxation had on me. I consider myself a pretty relaxed person in general, and also one who is hesitant to adopt anything particularly “spiritual.”
Kenney's soothing words were certainly rooted in a spiritual base, but the approach didn't come across as preachy at all. Instead I found myself relaxing in a real and complete way, which made the entire experience that much more enjoyable.
It was nothing like I expected and exceeded my expectations. Coming from a background in weightlifting and basketball, twisting my mentality from one of pushing through pain to one of recognizing discomfort and knowing one's limits was a change, indeed, but one I managed to adopt enough to keep up.
I'm glad I went, and it probably won't be the last time I do.
Next time I go, I'm just going to grab the beanbag pillow on the way in.
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